Is your DXP actually working for your community?
There’s a question that came up more than once at the Local Government Technology Summit in New South Wales recently — and it’s one that deserves a direct answer: are councils genuinely getting value from their digital experience platforms?
Based on what we’re hearing, many aren’t.
That’s not a technology problem. It’s a fit problem.
The DXP wasn’t built for you
Most enterprise DXP platforms were designed for commercial organisations — retailers, banks, media companies. They’re powerful, feature-rich, and built to drive transactions, conversions, and revenue.
Councils don’t operate that way.
Your community isn’t a customer segment to convert. Your services aren’t products to personalise. And your IT team isn’t a dedicated digital agency. When you deploy a platform designed for a fundamentally different context, the complexity compounds quickly — and so do the costs.
Five signs your platform is holding your council back
1. You’re paying for features you haven’t touched.
Enterprise DXPs come loaded with capabilities. Most councils use a fraction of them. The licensing model doesn’t adjust for that. You’re effectively subsidising functionality built for sectors with very different needs.
2. Your team needs a developer for everything.
If a basic content update requires a support ticket, a workaround, or a call to your vendor, the platform is working against your team — not for it. Non-technical staff should be able to manage content, forms, and communications without needing IT involvement for every change.
3. Your systems still don’t talk to each other.
A resident submits a request online. It arrives somewhere. Someone processes it manually. The resident calls to follow up. If that sequence sounds familiar, your platform hasn’t solved the integration problem it promised to. Connected service delivery means the resident gets a response — not a receipt.
4. Resident engagement hasn’t improved.
The IBRS Australian Digital Citizens 2025 report found that only 55% of Australians engage with local government services online, compared to 88% for federal services. A digital platform that isn’t driving channel shift isn’t delivering community value — or ratepayer value.
5. You can’t demonstrate ROI to leadership.
If your annual review involves explaining what the platform does rather than what it’s achieved, that’s a problem worth naming. The right platform should produce clear data on service adoption, call deflection, community engagement, and resident satisfaction — the numbers that matter to councillors and executives.
Purpose-built makes a difference
Granicus’ Government Experience Cloud (GXC) was built exclusively for government. Not adapted from a commercial platform — built from the ground up for the way councils actually work.
That means the workflows, compliance requirements, accessibility standards, and citizen journey logic are all native to the platform. Your team can manage content and communications without needing a developer. Digital services, community engagement, and operational management run from one connected platform — not a patchwork of disconnected tools.
More than 6,000 government organisations globally use Granicus. Across Australia, councils are already seeing the difference. Hunter’s Hill Council — the smallest council in NSW by area — reported significant reductions in manual transactions and staff time after going digital with Granicus, with residents now completing requests online at any time without calling.
Frankston City Council went from the lowest metro community satisfaction score to the highest in its region within two years of redesigning its digital front door. These aren’t enterprise councils with large IT budgets. They’re resource-constrained teams that needed a platform built to work for government.
Granicus partners with local governments across ANZ to deliver connected digital experiences that improve service delivery, build community trust, and reduce operational burden. Contact us to learn more.